Flue sealing means for use in conduits



Aug. :12,/11958 l E. LEWENHEIM FLUE SEALING MEANS FOR USE IN CONDUITS HAVING UNIDRECTIONAL GAS FLOW Filed Aug. 28, 1952 United States Patent O 1 2,846,999 FLUE SEALING MEANS FOR USE IN CONDUITS HAVING UNIDIRECTIONAL GAS FLOW Ernst Loewenhem, London, England, assigner to Thermo- Technical Development Limited, London, England Application August 28, 1952, Serial No. 306,893 Claims priority, application Great Britain September 12, 1951 2 Claims. (Cl. 126-292) The present invention relates to ue sealing means and more particularly has reference to sealing means secured to a damper or the like and to its frame, with the frame and damper being installed in a ilue or conduit having a unidirectional gas ow therein and wherein the gas pressure aids the seal between the damper and the frame.

According to the invention, the sealing means is dened by a exible element formed at least in part of resilient material, such as at, heat resistant metal spring strips with one margin of one of the strips being anchored to the frame and the other margin overlapping the adjacent margin of the damper while one margin of the other strip is secured to the opposite margin of the damper and the free margin of the other strip overlapping the adjacent margin of the frame, and both of said strips being arranged on the upstream face of the damper so that the gas pressure in the flue or conduit assists in effecting the seal between the damper and frame.

The free end or margin of the strips will be pressed against the damper and the frame and the resilience of the strips will ensure that the strips will be properly seated regardless of whether the damper or frame may be distorted or misaligned.

While the invention is disclosed in connection with a horizontal ilue or conduit, it is to be understood that the sealing means can be employed in vertically or inclined flues so long as the gas ow is in one direction only.

Further objects and advantages of the invention will become more readily apparent to one skilled in the art from a study of the following description and claims.

With the foregoing and other objects in view, the invention consists in the details of construction, and in the arrangement and combination of parts to be hereinafter more fully set forth and claimed.

In describing the invention in detail, reference will be had to the accompanying drawings forming part of this application, wherein like reference characters denote corresponding parts in the several views, and in which:

Fig. 1 is a view in side elevation of the invention.

Fig. 2 is a sectional view taken along the line 2-2 of Fig. 1, the view looking in the direction of the arrows, and

Fig. 3 is a sectional view taken along the line 3 3 of Fig. 1, the view looking in the direction of the arrows.

As shown in Figs. 1 and 2, a swivel balanced damper blade or plate 1b is mounted in a horizontal ue or conduit having walls 2 and a damper framework is indicated 11. The blade 1b is provided with medially located pintles 11 which extend from opposite edges of the blade and the pintles are journalled in the framework 11. The blade 1b is operated by a pulley 9 by means of a wire or cable in any suitable manner.

The framework 11 is provided with abutments 11b which dene the inner margin of the framework and the abutments extend throughout the height of the framework and substantially throughout the width thereof, the transverse portions of the abutments terminating adjacent the pintles 11' of the blade 1b. The dimensions of the damper blade 1b are such that a perimetric spacing G is present between the side and end edges of the blade and the adjacent edges of the abutments 11b.

Resilient tlexible sealing strips 12, such as generally ICB flat heat resisting metal springs are employed to effect the desired seal. It will be seen that one strip 12 is vsecured to the abutment 11b whereas the other strip 12 is attached to the vblade 1b, with both strips being on the upstream face of the blade as best shown in Fig. 3. Furthermore, the respective strips 12 are of such dimensions that the free end or margin of` one of the strips overlaps the adjacent margin of the blade 1b while the other strip overlaps the adjacent margin of the abutment 11b thereby closing the perimetric spacing G when the damper is in the position illustrated in Fig. 3. While the strips 12 are preferably secured by means of screws 13, obviously other anchoring means can be used.

Hence, the springs 12 which are situated opposite the face of the blade 1b moving upstream when closing will seal against the upstream face of the blade and the springs secured to the upstream face of the blade moving downstream when closing will seal against the abutment 11b. Manifestly, with this arrangement, the gas pressure in the flue will aid in the effecting of the seal.

The invention is not to be confined to any strict conformity with the showings in the drawings and changes or modifications may be made therein so long as such changes or modications mark no material departure from the spirit and scope of the appended claims.

I claim:

1. Flue sealing means comprising an open frame having side and end walls for installation in a ilue, a damper, opposed pintles medially of the damper journalled in each end wall, abutment elements on the frame extending throughout the length of each side wall and along each end wall toward and terminating adjacent the pintles with said abutment elements dening the inner margin of the frame, the said damper being of such dimensions that the perimeter thereof is spaced inwardly of the abutment elements to provide a perimetric spacing between the abutment elements and the damper, the damper being movable between a irst position allowing the free passage of ue gases through the said frame and a second position closing the passage through the frame except for the perimetric spacing, and heat resistant spring strips of sucient length to span the perimetric spacing between the abutment elements and the damper when the damper is in the second position, each of said strips overlapping a corresponding edge of the damper and an adjacent one of said abutment elements, and one strip being secured to the damper and the other strip being secured to a corresponding abutment element to form a gas tight seal substantially entirely about the damper.

2. A flue sealing means as in claim 1 wherein: said abutments have faces extending angularly with respect to said frame, a rst of said strips being xed to one of said faces of a iirst of said abutment elements with said rst strip extending at an acute angle to and resiliently engaging said damper in the second position, the other of said strips being xed to said damper and engaging another face of the other of said abutment elements at an acute angle to said damper.

References Cited in the le of this patent UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,256,466 Gally Feb. l2, 1918 1,443,000 Briggs Jan. 23, 1923 1,560,879 Tinnerman Nov. 10, 1925 1,682,075 Foulds Aug. 28, 1928 1,872,020 Taylor Aug. 16, 1932 2,489,915 Loewenheim Nov. 29, 1949 FOREIGN PATENTS 656,748 Germany Nov. 7, 1933 589,206 Great Britain June 13, 1947 

